French physicist was Director-General of the largest European synchrotron between 1993 and 2001 and LNLS’ Scientific Director from 2009 to 2013.
In ceremony held on the morning of August 29th, Yves Pierre Petroff became Director of the Brazilian Synchrotron Light Laboratory (LNLS). Yves Petroff was LNLS’ Scientific Director from November 2009 to March 2013. During the ceremony, Rogério Cesar de Cerqueira Leite, Chairman of the Board of Directors of CNPEM, and Antonio José Roque da Silva, CNPEM’s Director-General and former LNLS Director, highlighted Pretroff’s competence and his history within LNLS.
Yves Petroff is one of the world’s leading specialists in the use of synchrotron light. He received his doctorate in physics from the Ecole Normale Supèrieure of the University of Paris in 1970. Later, he went to the University of California, Berkeley, from 1971 to 1975. During this period, Yves Petroff worked on the investigation of optical properties of solids, having made important developments in the area of Resonant Raman Effect.
In the early 1970s, the first generation of synchrotron accelerators began to be built, focused primarily on particle physics. In 1975, Yves Petroff returned to France to work in the ACO, one of the first synchrotrons in the world, located in Orsay. Pioneering work was performed by Petroff’s team on the use of synchrotron light to understand the properties of solids. His group was also the first in the world to build a Free Electron Laser in the region of visible light.
>Read more on the Brazilian Synchrotron Light Laboratory (LNLS) website.
>Read also an article published on the ESRF website.